Worlds Apart but Way Too Close
by XxWanderlustxX
Summary: Merlin and Arthur, on a hunt, a silver wolf that curses too much, a lost, accident-prone boy, and a potential merging of worlds and the destruction of Camelot and the whole of Albion, Merthur but takes very long, loads of OCs and a ton of lost charac...
1. Chapter 1: A Forest Rendezvous

Hi! EizrilJinx wishes to say that she does not own Merlin and Never will, nor does she own any of the characters borrowed and forced under pain of permanent mental retardation to appear in this story, she does, however, own all OCs that shall hereby appear, Namely the big silver wolf, the people that play dead, and the miscellaneous personnel from other dimensions...

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Chapter 1: A Forest Rendezvous

It was yet another hunt and Merlin was groaning inwardly as he trudged the woods after the trigger-happy prince of Camelot who, Merlin noted out of the corner of his eye, was hidden in the bushes a little to his right and aiming his crossbow at a doe that the young warlock could only partially see, as it was obscured by a lot of foliage.

He wondered if he should crash in on Arthur and startle the doe away; it would surely annoy the prince and he just _might _decide Merlin was too much of a bother when hunting and call it a day… or it could be just the opposite and they'd end up hunting for another three hours longer than necessary. Knowing Arthur, probably the latter, _stupidarroganthuntingfanaticPRAT._

There was a resounding _thwang!_ As the bolt was released and found its mark straight at the doe's chest and the animal fell down dead, shaking Merlin out of his thoughts, he felt a surge of pity for the creature but there was nothing he could do for it, game was game.

And sorcerers were sorcerers, apparently, fair game for Uther Pendragon as much as the doe was for his son. Merlin frowned at the comparison, not liking where his thoughts were leading and was almost thankful –keyword being almost, when Arthur, not getting a response when he quipped about how Merlin shouldn't think so much as he might strain himself or when he snapped his fingers in front of the azure-eyed boy, decided that the most effective way to catch his servant's attention was to shout a very loud "EARTH TO MERLIN!!" somewhere a few inches away from his friend's ear. It was effective.

Merlin gave a start and managed to trip over his own feet, giving a small yelp as he fell face first on the forest floor, the packs he carried crashing and banging all over the place, Arthur started sniggering. Merlin glared at him.

"What? It's funny…" he said, grinning.

_No. it's not._ Thought Merlin, but he said nothing as he stood up and brushed dried leaves off his shirt.

"Well, are you done?" asked Merlin, aware that his tone was slightly haughty, which was weird. This was usually Arthur's tone. Arthur seemed aware of that too and raised a questioning eyebrow at Merlin, but the warlock was really not in the mood to apologize… or talk… or be cheery at all, for the matter. In fact all he wanted to do was finish his job and go back to his room and… brood. He didn't know why it was but for the past few days, he had been on edge, thinking a lot and felt like he had a lot less energy to do anything.

As if some sort of gloom had seeped into his bones while he was not looking.

And when he thought about it, he could only identify the feeling as dread, but there was absolutely no reason for the feeling that way. He frowned. Maybe he really was becoming retarded?

"Yes, actually, I am" he heard Arthur saying before the prince slung the doe over his shoulder, and Merlin absent-mindedly followed him back to the castle.

But when Arthur stopped only a few seconds after and turned to face him, Merlin knew he was in for it.

"What is wrong with you? You've lost your cheery-ness; you snap at me whenever I talk to you, you leave as soon as your chores are done, and… I can't believe it; you actually do your chores well!"

He took a deep breath.

"You don't mess up on hunts, you space out, you don't talk, you're brooding all the time, and, for the life of me, I cannot figure out the reason why unless… unless… "

Merlin could swear he could hear something jingling as Arthur screwed up his face and tried to rack his brains for a reason why Merlin would be acting this way, _great_, he thought sarcastically, _maybe you could find a reason why, seeing as how I cant._

But Arthur gave up eventually and just settled for a "Who are you and what have you done with Merlin?" which didn't exactly help the warlock's mood. And now Arthur seemed to have gotten in a foul mood as well and they both ended up walking back to the castle in complete silence.

At least until they heard the scream.

Both boys froze in their tracks as the scream echoed from the forest behind them, a pained, frightened scream, they looked at each other then at the path they had gone through, completely forgetting about their spat. Arthur grabbed his crossbow and sword and Merlin dropped the packs he was bringing and both raced back into the forest at the direction of the sound.

It didn't take them long as they soon heard a frightening roar coming from the same direction; they both decided to hurry up… and emerged in a clearing, two sets of blue eyes going wide as they took in the scene before them.

_It's gigantic_, Merlin thought, as he eyed the humongous silver wolf that took up most of the clearing, it was bristling, snapping and wild… and yet, oddly graceful… beautiful. Arthur gasped and Merlin wondered if he was thinking the same thing, until he followed the prince's gaze and saw the three limp bodies at the wolf's feet… and the young girl it had cornered, she was cowering at the base of a tree, a look of utter terror on her face as the silver wolf approached her, snapping and growling wildly.

Merlin felt slightly betrayed, how could such a beautiful creature do such a thing? _Well, it is wild_, said a rational part of his brain, but Merlin felt he wasn't looking at the whole story here… that there was more to this scene, just lurking in the shadows, try as he might, he could not see the wolf as the antagonist.

Arthur, however, did not share his views.

As soon as he had seen the limp bodies and cornered girl, he immediately categorized the situation… girl: victim. Wolf: bad. Arthur: good. And leapt into the fray with a loud battle cry. Startling Merlin out of his thoughts, and the wolf out of cornering the child. It leapt away instantly, regarding the newcomer with wary eyes. _Silver eyes_. Noted Merlin. Still quite entranced at the giant wolf, but not enough to forget about Arthur, The wolf was not normal, it was probably magical… like the griffin, or the questing beast, and as such, would not be harmed by normal weapons, he had to enchant Arthur's sword.

But would Arthur notice? And if he did, what would Merlin tell him? The spell wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous one in the book, what, with the blade burning blue fire and all that.

And Merlin did not want to kill the wolf.

And that was probably the reason why he decided it would be best to just attempt to get the girl to safety and distract the wolf so that all three of them could run.

He just hoped Arthur could hold up for that long, because if he didn't… then Merlin didn't have a choice, Arthur's life was worth more than the wolf's.

Slowly, he edged closer to the girl, who was watching in bated breath as the prince swung and jabbed at the wolf, missing it by inches, Merlin blinked, the wolf was not attacking, it merely dodged every blow Arthur aimed at it, and it was surprisingly fast for something its size, but it did not attack. It did however, eye the girl and snarl at her, and she cowered even more and curled up into a piteous ball, whimpering. Arthur used the chance to jab his sword at the wolf, aiming for the heart, but the animal leaped to the side instantly and the blow hit its shoulder instead and Merlin gazed, wide-eyed as the cut spurted blood, the crimson staining the wolf's silver coat.

_How? _He thought, gazing in horror at the bloodied creature, that couldn't possibly happen, it shouldn't have been hurt. But it was, and the girl's gleeful shriek mingled with the wolf's howl of pain. _No,_ he thought horrified,_ Arthur's going to kill it!_ He had to do something… but what? He had to stop Arthur… he had to–

The wolf closed its eyes and gave what Merlin thought could only be a long-suffering sigh, if wolves could sigh, and without a second thought, swiped at the prince with a paw, and the young man was thrown in the air, hit a tree rather viciously and fell to the ground unconscious. The girl seemed to cower down again as the wolf approached her, this time a lot more cautious, and it eyed Merlin several times warily. Merlin was torn… he couldn't let it eat the girl, but he didn't want to hurt it either. And he so desperately wanted to run over to the other side of the clearing to make sure Arthur was okay, but he was stuck on the spot he was standing on… indecisive.

The silver wolf growled at him, a warning growl, and had it been anyone else, they probably would have ran away screaming by now, but it was Merlin, and he had to do something, he wondered if the wolf would attack him if he tried to get to the girl, so far, it seemed it was not too keen on hurting anyone else, just the girl… He took a small step closer to the girl and was rewarded by a loud snarl as the wolf bared it's fangs at him. Merlin gulped, he was pretty sure that wolf could take his head off in one bite; its longest fang was about the size of a small dagger.

Merlin gulped again but looked defiantly into the wolf's silver eyes… the wolf looked back at him with the same defiant expression as if to say _I dare you to stop me_, but after a while, it rolled it's eyes, if wolves could roll their eyes, and placed a gigantic paw on Merlin's head, the warlock flinched and closed his eyes, sure that he was gonna get hurt but opened them again when he found that there was no hurt forthcoming. The wolf was staring at him pointedly and slowly and deliberately moved him to the side, far away from the girl.

Merlin didn't really want to move, but found that if you have a gigantic, heavy, powerful-enough-to-crush-bone paw on your head, there wasn't really much you could do against it. The wolf glared at him for a few moments, as if to say _stay right there and keep out of trouble. _Before turning to the girl, only to find that she was gone.

Apparently, the girl had used the few moments that the wolf was distracted by Merlin in order to slip away and get around the wolf, she was still in the clearing however and the wolf snarled in frustration before bounding up after her. Her eyes widened, but she did not scream… she was smiling.

The wolf was almost on top of her when all of a sudden, the entire clearing erupted into chaos, Merlin felt like he had been thrown into a tornado, fierce winds blowing him first this way and then that, leaves blew through the air, marking the paths the wind was taking, Not that Merlin could make them out anyway, he was too busy trying to hold on to a root, he felt like he was going to be blown up and out of sight the moment he let go, and he probably was, he could just barely make out the silver wolf just a few meters in front of him and it seemed even it was hanging on for dear life, it's snarls and growls joining in with the roar of the wind… and the girl's laughter.

_She caused this._ He realized._ She's a sorceress._

"Too late, guardian…" he heard the girl saying. The wolf snarled angrily. "I was careless, but I've learned from my mistakes. You won't find me again."

And with another laugh, the girl disappeared, and the wind became still…

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EizrilJinx hopes you enjoyed this story and will send reviews, if you do not, she will be happy as well, although she will then resort to locking herself up in the closet and begging for chocolate oatmeal cookies and tea while standing on her head, let that be on your conscience.


	2. Chapter 2: The Onset of the Strange

Chapter 2: The Onset of the Strange

Merlin stayed where he was, completely dumbfounded until a thought crossed his mind.

"Arthur!" he yelled and immediately got to his feet, searching for the unconscious prince, hopefully, he hadn't been blown away during the tornado. Although, it would be funny, he mused, to have the prat stuck up in a tree somewhere.

He spotted Arthur lying face-down a few feet away from the tree, and immediately ran to his side to check the damage, he was still unconscious and he had a few scrapes and bruises, but other than that, he seemed fine. Merlin sighed in relief.

"Damn it!"

The brunette's head shot up so fast, he cracked something and he rubbed his nape gingerly while he tried to find the source of the sound. There was no one there but the wolf. Although at this point he probably wouldn't be surprised if he found the wolf could talk too. Apparently it could, as it let out a string of curses that would have made a sailor blush.

The wolf could talk. Merlin was sure nothing could surprise him now. How very wrong he was…

The wolf was still cursing when Merlin noticed something weird happening to it, it was getting smaller, its fur was getting shorter and seemed to be growing back into its body, its claws retracting into its paws, its muzzle shortening and moving back to its face. He gaped in shocked silence as right before him, the wolf turned into a human. A girl. A rather naked girl.

Merlin blushed and looked away, but the girl didn't seem to have noticed him. She was still cursing. He wondered what to do now and fidgeted with the hem of Arthur's jacket, but suddenly there was a loud whooshing sound and Merlin looked up curiously, a bright light surrounded the girl and when it left, she was fully clothed…sky blue shirt that was laced up at the collar, leather belt with an ornately designed silver buckle, knee-length breeches and brown leather boots, an ultramarine cloak trimmed with silver and a rather expensive-looking, bejeweled sword included. Her silver hair was straight and fell about her shoulders until they reached her waist, framing a pale oval face, soft, carnation pink lips and silver eyes.

_If only her hair and eyes were normal_, Thought Merlin, _She could have rivaled Morgana._

The girl's face was screwed up in frustration, and Merlin could tell she was still muttering profanities under her breath, then, she turned and walked up to where Merlin and Arthur were. Merlin let go of Arthur's jacket.

"Emrys" she said in a low voice, as if she worried someone might hear them. Merlin tensed at the name, the only other person that had called him that was the druid-boy, Mordred.

"It's dangerous here. You should leave at once. That spell Lilith did…" she shook her head. "That wench, it won't be without repercussions… the forest will be unsafe for a while"

"What? Why?" asked Merlin. "What did she do?"

The girl regarded him quietly for a moment. Then she opened her mouth to tell him something and closed it again.

"It was a spell to cross dimensions." She told him. Merlin just gaped. "It created a tear in the dimensional fabric so that she could escape. The problem is, a tear such as that will cause a chain reaction and if the rest of the fabric is brittle enough, it will cause other breaks in other places, people may start disappearing and… strange things… strange things could start to occur."

"Strange things?" asked Merlin, ignoring that he only understood about half of what she said.

Whatever it was that the girl was about to tell him, Merlin never found out, as just then, a powerful earthquake rocked the surface of the earth. The girl lost her balance and had to cling on to Merlin's shoulder to keep upright, it was like that for a few minutes and then it was gone… and they stood silent for a while.

Another earthquake began, this one more powerful than the first, And the girl struggled to keep her footing, but when the huge cracks started appearing on the ground, both Merlin and the girl jumped into action, Merlin slung Arthur's arm over his shoulder and dragged him to safety just as a huge crack appeared where the prince had been laying, and a part of the ground disappeared. The girl had leapt away and to the right when the place she was standing on suddenly cracked, one part moving higher and the other, falling lower down. One of the unconscious men, Merlin recognized them as townspeople, slid over in the crack and disappeared.

Then, just as soon as it had started, it was gone; Merlin and the girl looked at each other.

"It's starting…" hissed the girl, and ran off deeper into the woods.

"What?" asked Merlin "Wait! Where are you going? Wait, miss! Who are you?!"

"Eryn, my name is Eryn!" shouted the girl, without even looking back. "Just get out of here!"

Unfortunately for her, Arthur had picked that time to suddenly regain consciousness, although that may have something to do with the acorn that hit him on the head while Merlin wasn't looking. He stared up groggily at Merlin.

"Wha' hapned?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head and taking his arm off his manservant.

Merlin just stared at him, and then took off at the direction Eryn had taken without another word. Had Arthur remained unconscious, Merlin wouldn't have left him like that and would probably bring him back to the castle, but a conscious Arthur could very well take care of himself.

"Hey!! Merlin! You Idiot, where are you going? Merlin!" Shouted Arthur, but he soon realized that Merlin wasn't listening and decided to just grab his sword and run after him.

Of course, Arthur, being the fitter of the two, soon caught up to his servant.

"What happened?" he asked when they were alongside each other. "Where did the wolf go? What happened to the girl? Why does the whole place look like it's been through a tornado?"

Merlin wondered what to tell the prince. He was a horrible liar, and both he and Arthur knew it.

"The girl was a sorceress" he said. Arthur's eyes went wide. "She caused a tornado while you were unconscious… and an earthquake. Then she disappeared."

"And the wolf?"

"It was trying to stop her."

"But it attacked us!" Merlin eyed him and Arthur frowned. "What?"

"If you'll remember, we… or rather, you, just you really, attacked it. It wasn't even fighting back."

"It knocked me unconscious!"

"Probably because you skewered its shoulder with your sword."

At that, Arthur looked slightly guilty.

"Well, what happened to it?" he asked. _Good question._ Thought Merlin.

"It… ran into the woods, after the earthquake." What had Eryn meant when she said strange things were going to occur? And was she going to be alright? Merlin had only remembered she was wounded now… and she had said herself that the forest was dangerous.

"Where are we going?" asked Arthur.

"I'm not really sure"

Arthur stopped. "We're not running after it, are we?" Merlin just shrugged. "We're running after it then!" Silence.

"Why?"

"Because she's wounded"

"She?" A raised eyebrow. "How do you know it's a 'she'? And why do you even care if it's wounded?"

"I–"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

They froze and eyed the forest around them warily, where had that scream come from? Arthur drew his sword. Merlin backed up until he and Arthur where almost touching. It sounded close by…

Suddenly, there was a snap of twigs above them and leaves and bark rained down on the two as they looked up, just in time to see a dark _something_ plummeting down towards them, or, more specifically, Arthur. The blonde reacted by stepping backward, forgetting that Merlin was there and causing him to trip over his manservant, who consequently lost his balance as the sudden unexpected weight of the prince of Camelot bore down upon him, and they ended up flopping down in an ungainly heap at the forest floor.

Arthur groaned and tried to rub the debris from his eyes, Merlin was under him, spitting out a mouthful of dried leaves and muttering something about fat, heavy, royal, prats and their consequential weight issues which said prat was just about to comment on, because prince Arthur of Camelot was _not_ fat, not in a million years and Merlin was just being wimpy, except that when he opened his eyes to glare at his manservant, he found that his entire vision was suddenly obscured by a pair of large, chocolate brown eyes.

Unbeknownst to all, this would be a crucial turning point in the lives of the denizens of Camelot and the resulting mess up of it, and when asked if he remembered this crucial moment, the prince would say, with utmost reservation, that, yes, he did. But he will, however, vehemently deny that he had ever squealed in shock or nearly tripped over his manservant again as he tried to put some distance between himself and the, then unknown, owner of the offending eyes. Merlin however, would never be able to tell, as he nearly doubles over laughing when asked.

From a distance, Arthur was able to get a proper look at his assailant, who, apparently, was nothing more than a boy, hanging upside down and currently very tangled in at least three different types of vine. Arthur stood up at once in an attempt to salvage a little bit of his dignity, although he thoroughly denies even losing it.

"Erm… Do you… uh… mind giving me a hand?" asked the boy, who was starting to twirl around a bit. Arthur immediately cut him off of the vines, and he landed with a dull thud on the forest floor, Merlin helped him up.

"Thanks…" said the boy, standing up and dusting several leaves off of his clothes, and more than a few from his hair.

Arthur eyed him curiously, he was about as tall as Merlin but was definitely a lot younger, his hair was short and dark, and there was a smattering of freckles on his pale skin; he wasn't as pale as Merlin though, but he had these weird squares that seemed a lot like cloth (although Arthur couldn't be sure as he had never seen the material before) stuck to his face and arms. But what piqued Arthur's interest most were the stranger's clothes.

He wasn't wearing anything particularly extraordinary, a dark green shirt with a collar and a pair of weird breeches and shoes, it was just that the shirt was obviously well-tailored and made of good material, obviously cost a fortune, and the breeches went down to the ankles and were made of some sort of tough, grayish blue material, and had studs… and pockets! Arthur was a bit amazed by the amount of pockets in those breeches; he had never seen that many pockets in a single item of clothing before, there were at least six. And the boy's shoes were also weird; they were black and white and had several weird markings on them, made of cloth and some strange material and had laces in them. He was quite sure he had never seen that style in footwear before…

"Who are you, stranger, and what are you doing here?" asked the prince, frowning. The boy fidgeted a bit, but answered.

"My name is Jace Andrews, but you can call me Jace, and as for what I'm doing here, I'm afraid I don't know myself."


	3. Chapter 3: The Lost Boy

A/N: I just wanted to say, thank you so much to CrayonsPink and Sarahluvsdwrh for reviewing, and to angelgurl464 for adding me to her favorites. I hope you like this chapter as well.

Chapter 3: The Lost Boy

"What are we going to do about him?" asked Arthur, frowning.

"What do you mean?" asked Merlin back. The two of them were some distance away from Jace, who was sitting on a rock and rummaging through his bag, which he had retrieved a little while ago from where it had dropped on a branch.

"What I mean is, we don't know who he is–"

"Yes we do, he's Jace"

" –and we don't know where he's from or how he got here, seemingly falling out of the _sky._"

Merlin rolled his eyes. Arthur ignored him.

"He could be a spy, or a sorcerer, or a dozen other things, he could be dangerous"

"Dangerous? Arthur, look at him! He's harmless!"

Jace was now taking little rectangular pieces of paper and tearing them open rather viciously, sighing. Arthur looked like he was about to say something but shut his mouth, a bit speechless at the boy's weird behavior. Merlin bit his lip, not quite sure what to do either. They both turned away, conversing in low tones.

"What do you suggest we do, turn him over to the guards? He's hardly done anything worth being jailed for!"

"But what if he's a sorcerer? What if he's with that girl earlier?"

Neither of them saw Jace taking out the band-aids from the 'rectangular pieces of paper' and sticking them on the scratches he got from falling through the vines, and even if they did, they probably wouldn't make sense of it.

"What if he isn't?" _but what if he is?_ " You can't put a man in prison without proof he did something wrong!"

"Actually, I can" said Arthur, Merlin looked at him incredulously.

"Well, I am a prince… But I wont. We'll see if he's a friend or foe first."

Merlin smiled. Arthur stared and Merlin started to fidget a bit.

Jace sighed again and returned his first-aid kit in his bag, he was glad his friends always insisted he bring a first-aid kit with him wherever he went, looks like Koryuu's prediction that Jace was a trouble magnet had come true, and this time, he didn't have any of his friends around to make sure he wasn't attacked by baseballs, or chased by geese, or mauled by the undead while no one was looking. He sighed again and stood up.

"Excuse me, but where exactly am I?"

Both Arthur and Merlin gave a start, neither of them had noticed Jace approaching them.

"You're in the forest outside Camelot" said the blonde.

"Camelot?" repeated Jace, _Oh great… I'm in Camelot, CAMELOT!_

"Yes, I'm prince Arthur of Camelot and this is my manservant, Merlin"

Jace looked like he was struggling very hard to understand something and looked at the two of them, disbelief written all over his face.

"Okay… I'm in Camelot, and you're Prince Arthur and he's Merlin…" he said in a voice that suddenly made it all sound so silly. "Okay…"

He looked upward as if pleading with some unknown entity but sighed and looked back at them again.

"So… uh… now what?"

_Why me?_ Thought Jace as he followed Arthur and Merlin through the forest, lugging his bag, which had mercifully fallen only a few meters away from him, _why does it always have to be me?_

One minute he had been walking home from school, and thankfully, only tripped _once_, then suddenly, he was at least thirty feet above the ground and falling, fast, screaming. He was lucky the vines were overgrown in this forest, he didn't think he might have survived the fall if they weren't, and as thankful as he was for their existence, he couldn't help but wince while trying to ignore the sore muscles and scratches he got from them. _Those were definitely going to bruise…_

He fidgeted again and barely avoided tripping over a root for the third time since he appeared, he knew his clothes were strange and his sudden appearance was too, but could they please just stop _staring _at him! Jace wasn't used to being stared at, as stares were usually directed at his friends and not at him, he was one of those plain, part of the wallpaper types, his friends stood out like lighthouses in the dark. So really, there was no reason for anyone to stare at him, and he knew his thoughts were just about bordering on hysterical, but he couldn't help it, he was panicking!

"Where are you from? Your clothes are strange" asked the dark-haired one with the scarf curiously, _Merlin_, thought Jace, wondering if this really was the Merlin in the stories, somehow this wasn't how the seventeen-year-old imagined him, but Jace could feel the barely hidden power coming from the man.

"Lake City, Florida"

"I've never heard of that place" _And you probably won't, at least not for a few hundred years,_ thought Jace glumly, he'd heard about the portals and dimensional rifts before and that was only because some of his friends had actually been through them and Eryn, who was his dimension's guardian, was the older sister of his friend, Therese, he just never expected that he'd actually fall into one during a random walk home, _honestly, aren't they supposed to be rare? Curse my horrible luck. Of course, out of the hundred million people on earth it just__** had**__ to be me..._ He knew that if he wanted to get back, he'd have to open a portal somewhere and Jace didn't have the ability to do that, it was true that he could sense magic and demons and stuff like that, but that was about it.

So creating a portal was out of the question, the only other options left were to hope he could find another portal that led back to Lake City, which was impossible. Or find the guardian assigned to this dimension during this particular time period, which was near-impossible. Jace stifled a groan. He was stuck, and the situation looked hopeless.

The hopelessness must have appeared on his face however as Merlin immediately started chattering about how it must just be some really far place and how he wasn't really that knowledgeable on geography so he wouldn't be able to tell and how he himself had come from a small town that was barely even on the map.

Jace smiled, Merlin was being really nice, but he was pretty sure that both he and those two knew that he was definitely not from the country, at least.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence again. Jace, wondering if he would ever get back home. Arthur trying his best not to openly stare at the stranger and Merlin, wondering if Jace was part of the 'strange things' that Eryn had said would occur, or maybe he was another sorcerer, like the girl a while ago, Lilith…

Merlin wondered if Jace was connected in any way to Eryn and Lilith, but couldn't voice his questions as Arthur would surely become suspicious, Eryn was definitely a sorceress and Merlin really did not want Arthur to find that out… What if he turned her over to the king? But he had to know what was really going on! Thankfully, Arthur saved him the trouble of thinking up an inconspicuous question.

" Have you seen anything out of the ordinary, Jace?" asked the prince.

"What do you mean?"Asked Jace. _Aside from everything, including myself? _

"Just before we found you, we were chasing after a wolf, did you happen to see it? It was silver and about as tall as a fully grown man"

There was a pregnant silence and Merlin thought he saw a flicker of recognition in Jace's eyes, Arthur, however, was in the front and couldn't see that.

"Nope, why?" asked Jace in the most innocent voice he could muster, Arthur went on to explain what had happened, Merlin, who could see exactly what was going on, decided that Jace was just about as bad a liar as he was, Arthur, however would never find that out, because he was facing forward, completely missing the hope and excitement that was practically brimming from the boy's face and seemed to increase with every word the prince told him.

_Yes,_ Merlin thought, _He definitely knows Eryn. _Or maybe he didn't, but Merlin found it hard to imagine that anyone else could have the same description.

"Do you know her?" he whispered, edging his head closer to Jace's so the boy could hear him; Arthur was still ranting about the wolf.

Jace's chocolate brown eyes widened almost comically. " Is she really here?" he whispered back, "we are talking about Eryn Mihaera, right?"

"I don't know about the Mihaera part, but yes, she did say her name was Eryn, silver hair–"

" –silver eyes, kinda pretty?" completed Jace, the excitement clear on his face. Merlin felt his cheeks heat up a bit.

"Yes, kinda pretty…" he trailed off as if lost in thought.

"What are you two gossiping about back there?!" demanded Arthur, who they realized was already a good way ahead of them and already at the foot of the hillock, as they had unknowingly slowed down and stopped. Merlin and Jace ran forward to catch up to him, and were almost there when Jace was reminded, rather harshly, why running disagreed with him. He tripped, yet again, when he was halfway down, and ended up rolling down the slope and accidentally taking Merlin, who was a few steps ahead, down with him. They rolled down, a blur of leaves, dark hair, clothes, and flailing limbs, and crashed… straight into Arthur.

When Jace opened his eyes and looked around dazedly, the first thing he saw was neck. Arthur's neck to be exact, and the first thing he heard was a string of curses coming from a certain blonde prince, who apparently, was pinned beneath him and did not like the position. He then tried to get up but found that Merlin actually was rather heavy and that the world was still spinning, so he gave up and rested his head on the nearest solid item, which turned out to be Arthur's shoulder, the prince gave a choked gurgling noise, which Jace ignored –at least until his headache had disappeared and he was able to get a good look at their position.

Merlin, who was still rather dazed and had apparently hit his head somewhere along the way down, was sprawled on top of both Jace and Arthur, while Jace, who was sandwiched between the two was in turn sprawled all over Arthur in a rather awkward position. Jace blushed furiously and in his haste to get away knocked Merlin off of him, eliciting a groan from the still-dazed warlock, who clutched onto a nearby tree. Arthur sat up and Jace could see he was a bit red, but he gave a small, embarrassed cough and said: "Let's forget that ever happened."

"What happened?" asked Merlin, who had finally recovered, looking from one red face to another. Jace nodded at Arthur's direction and the prince quickly stood up.

"Let's go"

"What happened?" repeated Merlin, but was pointedly ignored. "What happened, Jace?"

Jace blushed again and fidgeted but kept his mouth shut.

"Shut up, Merlin" said Arthur, Merlin eyed him curiously.

"Since when have you two been such good friends?" questioned the brunette.

"Shut. Up."

"What is going on?" whined Merlin, looking to Jace for an explanation, only to find the boy was gone. "Jace? Jace!"

Arthur looked backwards, Jace was indeed missing. "Jace?" he called out tentatively. "Where'd he go?"

" I don't know! One second he was here and the next he was gone!"

"He cant have disappeared that fast. We better go look for him."

_Yes, but will we ever find him?_ Wondered Merlin,

_Who's to say he didn't just disappear like Lilith?  
_

A/N: I like slash and boy love and Jace was just inserted there to prove a point...

...Arthur is gay, he just doesnt know it yet.


	4. Chapter 4: The Horrors of the Forest

Okay, a little bit of violence in this Chapter, just so you know.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Horrors of the Forest

Jace felt dizzy, it was so high up…

_So high…I can even see the tops of Merlin and Arthur's heads from here, they're so small and so far away down… I wonder what they're talking about…_

"Jace? Jace?"

_I can barely hear them, but they're calling for me... I should tell them I'm here…_

He opened his mouth to speak only to find that he couldn't, his lips were held together tight by some sticky, gossamer, material that was wrapped around his mouth.

Jace jolted awake, it wasn't just his mouth; his arms, legs and torso, even his neck was also entangled in the material. Jace gulped, his breathing starting to speed up and beads of sweat came out of his forehead as he started to panic and trash around wildly.

He was in a web.

"Mmmmfff!" he tried to scream but that was the most that left him. "Mmmmff!"

_Arthur, Merlin, Help me! Anyone, please!_

The web around his neck tightened almost painfully and Jace stopped trashing, He could feel the presence of the being that caught him and he shuddered involuntarily, how could he not have noticed it before? It was probably hidden, but from this close he could feel it… It's aura was dark and filled with hate and malice… and _hunger_, Jace shuddered again, it was going to eat him… and Arthur and Merlin too if it could, because it's hunger was so great, it fed off his panic… his fears and despairs… they would be the appetizers, and after that… after that…

Jace tried to hold back a sob without much success, if he ever got out of this, he was going to train his tracking ability until he would never be fooled into a false sense of security like he had here._ If I ever get out of this…_

A clawed hand reached out and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look upward and at the creature that had caught him, Jace's eyes widened in shock and horror… It was hideous, a creature straight out of his worst nightmares, a cross between a man and a spider, with pointed ears and three, blood red eyes with sickly yellow pupils, and a rows and rows of sharp teeth the color of rust. _No, it's not rust,_ He realized_, it's blood._

The creature licked it's lips, relishing the terror it had inspired in it's victim, soon he would be ready, the creature didn't mind leaving his victims out to stew in their fears and despairs, but this one seemed delectable… perhaps there would be nothing wrong with taking a small bite…

Jace tried to move as far away as he could from it, but he knew there wouldn't be much of a difference, it watched him, amused at his small measure of defiance, before grabbing his throat and pulling him close enough…

He wanted to scream, it hurt so much, and he thrashed in pain while the searing heat and hurt on his shoulder continued on… oh, how he wanted to scream, to get away from it, he could feel it draining at his lifeblood and chewing on his flesh, he could feel it's teeth on his bone, but still the pain didn't stop, it wasn't enough, the pain continued on until he could no longer feel anything through it, just the pain, and the heat, until he couldn't even distinguish between the two.

_Somebody help me, please._

He didn't know when the creature stopped feeding, he didn't care, all he knew was the pain.

_I feel like I'm going to die, I don't want to die…_

He slumped down, completely limp, his shoulder starting to bleed, he was spent, and the creature knew it, it licked away a few drops of blood on his shoulder, wondering if the human would mind very much if it took another bite, the human tasted better than it had thought.

_I don't want to die… Somebody, please… help me_

_Please, anyone, please. _

_**HELP ME!**_

The creature flinched and leapt away from the human, hissing. Below them, and a few feet away, Merlin covered his ears in an effort to ease the pain until he realized it was only in his head, Arthur had ran over to his side, a look of concern on his face as Merlin scrambled to his feet. His head still throbbing from the mental scream, memories that weren't his started entering his head, _Jace's memories_, he realized.

_Jace._ He thought. _That was Jace's voice._

He looked up, to the tree tops, first this way and then that, _where?_ He wondered, _where was it?_ His eyes caught a stray glimmer, a small falter in the illusion and he immediately muttered a spell disguised as a rather long cough (how Arthur hadn't noticed was beyond him) "Afiareth costrais vhes…" and his breath caught in his throat, Jace was there, hanging limply while the horrid creature hissed and sputtered at one side.

"Arthur!" he shouted, Arthur turned to look at the scene, the emotions in his face changing from shock to horror to grim determination. He unsheathed his sword and advanced upon the creature, which had by then realized that it had been exposed. It hissed angrily, snapping the web around Jace and throwing the unconscious boy over it's shoulder before attempting to escape, Merlin and Arthur in close pursuit.

It leapt from tree to tree, and probably would have gotten away with the speed it was going, but Arthur had raised his crossbow and was shooting at the creature, the first two shots missed and the thing laughed mockingly, turning to face them before firing a barrage of gossamer-like needles, one of them barely missing Merlin's head and the young warlock watched in horror as a dark violet poison oozed out of it and the leaf it had pinned withered. Arthur continued to fire at it, ducking behind trees whenever it shot the needles… A bolt finally hit its arm and the creature screeched angrily and spat a glob of green acid at the two, which they barely avoided, but it had stopped.

Merlin watched the creature warily, it was hissing at them but was not moving, dark violet blood trickled down its arm and hit the plants underneath it, they withered. It growled at them and spat a web-like substance on the tree it was perched on and attached its captive to it, Merlin gulped, it was going to fight. Beside him, the prince of Camelot tensed and brought his sword up, ready for battle.

There were a few moments of tense silence… then it attacked.

It jumped downward, landing on its four spider legs in front of them and before either Merlin or Arthur could react, had lunged at Arthur, taking the prince down where he was saved only by his fast reflexes, which had caused him to bring his sword up defensively before he was skewered by the sharp ends of the spider creature's legs. The crossbow fell a few meters away and for the moment, was completely forgotten.

Arthur struggled to fend off the monster, it was faster, stronger, and had the upper ground, he didn't stand a chance, unless… Arthur slid his sword sideways, drawing blood but not deep enough to chop the limb off, and rolled away from the beast, it roared angrily and attempted to skewer the prince, and Arthur knew he couldn't keep rolling forever. Finally, he saw his chance, just as the monster lifted its leg to attack again, Arthur slashed, the blow connected and the prince found himself sprayed full on the face by the spider's dark violet blood.

It screeched angrily and jumped away, hissing while it crouched underneath a tree and eyed the prince warily, as if seeing him for the first time, Arthur wiped blood from his eyes and stood up. Merlin, who had been watching in bated breath, let out a relieved sigh and allowed himself a small smile, perhaps Arthur would be alright after all.

Then his vision started swimming, Merlin shook his head and brought one hand up in an attempt to clear his head, it didn't work and, if anything, got even worse, his vision was starting to blur and he felt like something was pounding his head repeatedly, he wondered if this was a delayed reaction to the bump he got a while ago but knew that it wasn't, it hurt too much to be just a bump. He felt his legs fold under him and clutched onto a nearby rock for support, he was starting to feel nauseous. Merlin stifled a groan, he didn't want Arthur to be distracted now…

He looked up to watch the fight and gave a start, dark tendrils were wrapped around the spider-monster, twisting and writhing in a way that reminded Merlin of worms, Arthur didn't seem surprised. _No,_ Merlin realized, _He just cant see them._

The wisps wrapped around the creature, slowly working their way towards its wounds and embedding themselves within while Merlin watched in horror, and then the wounds began healing and in a few seconds, had completely disappeared.

Magic, he realized, he was seeing its magic, and it was dark. Merlin shuddered, it was frightening, but strangely alluring at the same time… he could feel it, whispering, just beyond the edge of his consciousness, promising power, and immortality… and darkness, and nightmares. It was the dark abyss, the unknown, the terrifying… and it was there, looking at him and he, at it. He suddenly felt like he had been doused in cold water, and whatever hopes he had of winning, doused along with it.

He shook his head, the creature was using magic, Arthur needed his help if he wanted to win against it, and he could not, and would not fail Arthur. So despite the nausea and the constant fear that had wrapped itself around his heart, he stood up, and prepared to help his friend.

Arthur, in the meantime, was dodging blows left and right, he didn't understand how the creature had healed itself so quickly, but simply put it as an ability of the monster, he was trying to think up of a strategy to defeat it, but how do you defeat a beast when you cant even wound it for long? He scowled and dodged just as the creature spat acid on the spot he had been standing on, the acid splattered on his jacket and burned a hole at the sleeve; he scowled even more.

Then suddenly, there was no where else to dodge, his eyes widened, he had been cornered.

The creature cackled, it had finally gotten its prey where it wanted, and the blonde human looked like a tasty meal… but it had to be careful, the human still had his sword and that could be dangerous. It reached out an arm and swiped the sword away, it flew all the way to the other side and embedded itself point-first on the ground. Much better.

Arthur backed up as much as he could, though it wasn't much, he ended up flattening himself against the rock, _caught between a rock and a hard place, great._

The spider creature advanced, licking it's lips, oh, the human would be tasty, yes… it leaned in to bite and Arthur closed his eyes, waiting for the pain… except it never came. The prince opened his eyes and blinked. The creature was gone.

Wait, no, it wasn't, it was on his feet, pinned down by an enormous piece of wood that had apparently, broken off and fell right on the spider creature. Arthur stepped around the monster and wondered at his luck, completely missing the cunning smile on Merlin's face.

"Arthur! Are you okay?" asked Merlin, running towards the prince.

"Yeah sure, no thanks to–" Arthur stiffened when he felt Merlin's fingers brushing a few strands of hair off his face.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a choked voice, _tooclosetooclosetooclose._

"That looks like a bad cut" stated Merlin, peering at the wound in Arthur's temple and, in consequence, moving closer, oblivious to the reddish tinge on the blonde's face. Probably because it was still covered in the creature's blood.

"It's fine!" said the prince and stepped away, or he had been stepping away, except now he was falling forward, straight at Merlin, who caught him.

"Arthur? Arthur, what's wrong?"

Merlin's voice sounded so far away, Arthur shook his head but found that that only made him dizzier, he felt hot and cold at the same time, he groaned. His head hurt so much…

"My god, Arthur, you're burning up!"

Merlin saw movement from the corner of his eye and to his horror, watched as the spider creature shook off the piece of wood and stood up, hissing at them angrily. It bounded after them and Merlin was immobilized, he couldn't move, couldn't think, could only stare as the monster came closer and closer.

Then it was right beside them and raised it's clawed hand, ready to kill…

Merlin closed his eyes and held Arthur closer, using his own body to shield the prince…

…And felt blood splatter all over him.

* * *

I have no idea why I like to torture my OCs... must be a sadistic streak... review?

Oh, and a question, if this fanfiction incorporates characters from other shows, even in passing, do I have to put it at Crossovers? Because most of the characters coming aren't even there long enough to make a big impact. They just sort of... show up and disappear again, do I put this at Crossovers?


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